The present disclosure relates generally to information handling systems, and more particularly to the persistent assignment of World Wide Names (WWNs) to Fibre Channel Identifiers (FCIDs) for information handling systems utilizing an N_Port ID Virtualization (NPIV) Proxy Gateway (NPG)/Input-Output Aggregator (IOA) to communication with a Fibre Channel (FC) Storage Area Network (SAN).
As the value and use of information continues to increase, individuals and businesses seek additional ways to process and store information. One option available to users is information handling systems. An information handling system generally processes, compiles, stores, and/or communicates information or data for business, personal, or other purposes thereby allowing users to take advantage of the value of the information. Because technology and information handling needs and requirements vary between different users or applications, information handling systems may also vary regarding what information is handled, how the information is handled, how much information is processed, stored, or communicated, and how quickly and efficiently the information may be processed, stored, or communicated. The variations in information handling systems allow for information handling systems to be general or configured for a specific user or specific use such as financial transaction processing, airline reservations, enterprise data storage, or global communications. In addition, information handling systems may include a variety of hardware and software components that may be configured to process, store, and communicate information and may include one or more computer systems, data storage systems, and networking systems.
Some information handling systems provide an FC SAN for the storage of data. In such systems, a FC switch may be utilized to couple the FC SAN to servers via a Fibre Channel Forwarder (FCF) that performs FC over Ethernet (FCoE)-to-FC protocol conversions on Ethernet communications sent from the servers to the FC SAN, as well as FC-to-FCoE protocol conversions on FC communications sent from the FC SAN to the servers. Such FCFs allow for server that communicate via the Ethernet protocol to utilize FC SANs that communicate via the FC protocol, but the conventional functionality of such FCFs raises a number of issues.
For example, servers in such systems may utilize a Converged Network Adapter (CNA) to communicate with an N_Port ID Virtualization (NPIV) Proxy Gateway (NPG)/Input-Output Aggregator (IOA) in the FCF in order to provide login communication for logging into the FC SAN, with the FCF converting those login communications and the NPG/IOA providing them to the FC switch in order to log the server into the FC SAN. However, such FCFs often include multiple and/or redundant links to the FC switch (e.g., using port based addressing), and load balancing techniques utilized by the FCF may prevent a CNA in a server from logging into the FC SAN via the same link to the FC switch in a login attempt subsequent to an initial login to the FC SAN. For example, in an initial login to an FC SAN, the CNA in a server will provide a Fabric Login (FLOGI) with a Source Identifier (SID) of “000000” to the NPG/IOA in the FCF. Upon receiving that FLOGI, the NPG/IOA in the FCF may determine which of its links to the FC switch has the lowest load, and send a Fabric Discovery (FDISC) corresponding to the FLOGI through that link to the FC switch. Upon receiving that FDISC, the FC switch assigns an FCID to the World Wide Name (WWN) that is associated with the CNA in the server, and provides an FDISC Accept (FDISC ACC) with that FCID to the NPG/IOA in the FCF. TheNPG/IOA in the FCF will then provide a corresponding FLOGI Accept (FLOGI ACC) with that FCID to the CNA in the server.
However, the CNA in the server may then be required to perform a subsequent login attempt to the FC SAN (e.g., following a link reset, a server reset, etc.) In such situations, the CNA in the server will provide a FLOGI with an SID of “000000” to the NPG/IOA in the FCF, and upon receiving that FLOGI, the NPG/IOA in the FCF may perform a load balancing technique to determine which of its links to the FC switch has the lowest load. However, if the link to the FC switch with the lowest load is a different link than was used in the initial login attempt, the NPG/IOA in the FCF will send an FDISC corresponding to the FLOGI through that link to the FC switch. Upon receiving that FDISC, the FC switch will assign a different FCID (i.e., different than the FCID that was assigned in the initial login attempt) to the WWN that is associated with the CNA in the server due to the FDISC having been received on a different link. As such, WWN-FCID assignment is not persistent in such situations.
Accordingly, it would be desirable to provide for the persistent assignment of WWNs to FCIDs.